Academic Interests

John N. Lavis, MD PhD, holds the Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Informed Health Systems. He is the Director of the McMaster Health Forum, Co-Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre on Evidence-Informed Policy, Associate Director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, Professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and Associate Member of the Department of Political Science at McMaster University. He is also Adjunct Professor of Global Health, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. His research focuses on how to support the use of research evidence in health policymaking, both in high-income countries like Canada and in a broad range of countries internationally.

He founded and continues to direct the McMaster Health Forum (www.mcmasterhealthforum.org), an agent of change that empowers health system policymakers and stakeholders to set agendas, take well-considered actions and communicate the rationale for actions effectively. The Forumâs Impact Lab undertakes cutting edge research and research synthesis about how to support the use of research evidence in health systems. He founded and oversees the continuous updating of Health Systems Evidence (www.healthsystemsevidence.org), the worldâs most comprehensive, free access point for high-quality evidence about how to strengthen or reform health systems, and how to get cost-effective programs, services and drugs to those who need them. Health Systems Evidence is also now home to the Intergovernmental Organizationsâ Health Systems Documents Portal, Canadaâs Health Systems Documents Portal, and the Ontario Health System Documents Portal.

He also founded and oversees the periodic expansion of Health Systems Learning (www.healthsystemslearning.org), which combines online and face-to-face learning opportunities for health system policymakers and stakeholders about how to find and use research evidence and how to set agendas and develop and implement policies. He leads one of the five teams contributing to the McMaster Optimal Aging Portal (www.mcmasteroptimalaging.org), which provides the worldâs best research evidence about optimal aging, specifically packaged for citizens, clinicians, public health professionals and policymakers. He teaches an undergraduate course on the politics of health systems for the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) programme at McMaster, a simulations course in the same programme, and the doctoral seminar for the PhD in Health Policy programme. He is Co-Chair of the WHO-sponsored Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Global Steering Group and a member of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research. He oversees the Policy Liaison Office of the Canadian Cochrane Centre. He holds an MD from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a PhD (in Health Policy) from Harvard University.